If you look outside in your yard, garden, or neighborhood (and it’s not winter), chances are good you will find some kind of plant blooming somewhere.   

In my area, the earliest blooming plants include natives like buttercups and balsam root, while early ornamentals include many of the spring-flowering bulbs like snowdrops, crocus, daffodils and tulips. As the temperatures warm further into spring, I start to see flowering shrubs, fruit trees, and ground covers come into bloom.  

It might be different where you live, but the chances are good your area has a pretty predictable pattern of blooming plants each year. Or at least it used to be predictable.  

Bloom times are changing. Keeping track of the shifts can be a game-changer in terms of how you manage your food and flower gardens moving.

Plants only flower when the right conditions have been met. 

Many factors play a role in bloom times including:

-        How long the plant has been growing, 

-        The condition and nutrient content of the soil, 

-        How much water it is receiving, 

-        How much light it has, and 

-        The average (or accumulated) temperature.  

Some plants are sensitive overnight lows.  Others need a period of cool weather followed by warmer weather in order to break dormancy and flower.  Still others are more about the exact daylight ratios.  Each plant type has its own requirements.

There are many reasons to understand when flowers of different plants bloom.  Four main benefits of tracking bloom times include:

1)     Preventing or promoting cross pollination – 

If you are trying to save the seeds of a particular plant and keep it pure, then you want to make sure that there are no close relatives of that plant blooming at the same time nearby.  You need to know when close relatives bloom and either avoid planting those types or remove (or cover) the blossoms to prevent cross-pollination.   

 If you are trying to ensure maximum fertility or to actively create a new race or hybrid, then you want to match flowering times as closely as possible to promote crossing.  Blueberries are a great example of plants that require cross-pollination in order to set fruit.  Having at least two varieties of blueberries that bloom at the same time is key to successful fruit harvests.

2)     Creating continuous color –

Most of us find gardens with a continuous array of flowers more aesthetically pleasing than gardens that are only flower-filled for part of the season.  Continuous blooms maximize the use of our space to create color, beauty and joy in the world.  

As you understand the bloom times in your area, you can create a steady flow of monochromatic or brightly colored flowers that enhance your landscape.  Tracking bloom times can let you better plan the floral show and address gaps or diversity issues in your plant selections.

3)     Creating continuous habitat for pollinators and natural predators – 

Flowers are not only bright and colorful, many also provide critical supplies of nectar, pollen and habitat for pollinators and natural predators.  These critters, big and small, enhance your garden’s productivity without the use of harsh chemicals.  

When you track the bloom times in your own garden, you can identify the periods of time when there are no nectar producing flowers.  Then visit your local nursery, or search through your neighborhood or landscape to identify plants (especially native varieties) that can fill the flowering void.  Not only do you benefit from increasing numbers of pollinators and natural predators, you also get the continuous color mentioned in #2.  Win-win-win!

4)     Understanding climate change better – 

Because plants respond to heat, water, light, nutrient availability and CO2 levels, plants can provide an opportunity to understand how climate change is acting in your area and what the on-the-ground trends actually are (as opposed to what models might be saying).

As you start tracking the bloom times of key “indicator” plants in your area, you start to generate your own data about the impacts of climate change in your area.  This information enables you to make better decisions faster in terms of how you can adjust your garden plan.  

Understanding these climate change shifts is especially important if you are trying to grow food and create local food security.  Start thinking about new plants or varieties that might be successful under the new conditions.

What should you watch for? Has it become hotter? Drier? Wetter? Have you jumped a USD Zone as a result of a temperature shift (one zone hotter or colder)?  Once you start tracking blooms you start to understand these patterns better.
 

Getting started tracking bloom times in your area is easy!

(1)   Start observing the plants in your area and when they first start to flower. 

(2)   Record that bloom time start date on your calendar or in a journal.  

(3)   Continue this process. Over time, you will undoubtedly see some climate change surprises.

For example,  we had an incredibly mild winter a couple of years ago that was really surprising.  How mild?  

I had dandelions blooming in my pastures in DECEMBER!?!?!?!    This is normally a spring blooming plant where I live and it may rebloom again towards the fall, but no plants are blooming once the frosts hit in October . . . or so I thought.  And then the dandelions were blooming in a super-mild December and the grass was growing and WOW, I just didn’t see that result coming!

Another example is when I first noticed that our spring blooming Saskatoons (native to our area and a critical food plant used by First Nations and many wildlife species for early summer berries) suddenly began to flower for a second time in September!  

While at first blush this may seem like a great thing – reblooming Saskatoons – how cool is that?  But actually, this is rather scary!  

Plants that are busy mobilizing energy into flowers and fruits are not shutting down their resources to survive the winter.  They could become vulnerable to an early frost and may even die as a result of being so out of sync with the temperature changes headed into winter

.  . . .  OR maybe they have far more plasticity and resilience than we know?   You see, only time (and bloom tracking) will tell us how this story ends.   Because unless we are paying attention, we are going to miss the signs of change.  That’s when we say things like, suddenly all the Saskatoons were just gone!

It’s time to become a detective and gather your own climate change intel.  See where the bread crumbs lead and what story they are telling.

Take out your calendar or journal and start today by choosing some plants you think might tell a story and writing down when they first start to bloom.  Once you start doing this, you will suddenly realize how many flowering plants there really are!  Go crazy and list them all or work smarter by picking and choosing ones you think will give you the best data or that are the most important for food.  

You can also easily start tracking blooms using the Bloom Time Tracker from Food Abundance Revolution.  Download the free guide and templates and dive right in!  

Then share your insights in the FAR Community Bloom Time section when you sign up for the FAR Community (it's Free) so we can all learn from each other, interact and share our ideas.